A study of the reading and writing abilities of students aged 7 to 19, in Linkoping, Sweden, was conducted from 1971 to 1975 and contained two parts: a survey of the development of certain reading and writing skills and an attempt to establish the extent to which pupils leaving school had reached satisfactory levels of reading and writing skills. This paper briefly summarizes and comments on the most important results of that study. Discussion follows the general development of reading and writing abilities, growth rates of different ability levels, performance differences between classes of the same grade, the relationship between performance and socioeconomic status, functional reading ability among school leavers, teachers' estimates of minimum satisfactory performance levels for school leavers, and consequences for educational research and practice. (JM)